WASHINGTON -- Spending on U.S. intelligence activities more than doubled in the last decade to above $50 billion in 2007, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell was to make public the amount of the fiscal 2007 spending at the urging of Congress and the Sept. 11 commission, formed after the World Trade Center attacks in 2001, the Post reported, noting the amount previously has been classified.

McConnell was expected to disclose that national intelligence activities in 2007 cost more than $40 billion, congressional sources told the Post. The figure topped $50 billion for 2007 when military intelligence spending was added, the Post reported.

The aggregate amount spent on U.S. intelligence activities in 1997 was $26.6 billion, CIA Director George J. Tenet disclosed that year, the Post reported. Since then, the overall intelligence budget had remained classified, despite legal challenges to make the aggregate spending amount known to the public.